


An Easy Decision

by RosyMiz, Zveroboi



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Angst, Gen, but no explicit details, glass, mild depictions of gore, mildly implied shenzed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 08:52:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18735715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosyMiz/pseuds/RosyMiz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zveroboi/pseuds/Zveroboi
Summary: After receiving a tip that Jhin was spotted in Navori, Shen and Zed didn't stop searching for his whereabouts without rest. Until one day, the Virtuoso himself sets the stage for Zed to make a choice.





	An Easy Decision

Several days passed since Zed and Shen received a tip that Jhin appeared in Navori, and they hadn’t stopped to hunt him down since. Both the Shadow and Kinkou Orders were on high alert for the Golden Demon. The two masters kept in contact with their students, making sure they would be prepared if Jhin tried to go for them. Even Akali, who had distanced herself away from the Kinkou Order, accepted the message and kept Shen updated on her whereabouts.

A white cloud formed from Zed’s breath as he turned from the mountain he was climbing. He could see the entire region of Navori from here. He crouched, wondering where Jhin would be hiding… or waiting. His helmet sat in his hands, staring up at him with its empty eyes. He shut his eyes and allowed himself a moment of rest, rubbing the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. 

He was tired, very tired.

It had been so long since Jhin’s imprisonment, his breaking from the Kinkou Order, and his murder of Kusho. Then everything came to a stop when word got out that Jhin escaped. It all took a toll on him, but he could never show that. He didn’t deserve to.

The golden light overtaking the dark night from behind the mountains signified the break of dawn. He squinted from the sliver of light that shone into his eyes and shielded them with his hand. 

Ever the one to lean towards the shadows.

Another white cloud seeped out of his helmet with another long sigh. The mountain air was cold, but it felt refreshing to his tired soul. Zed allowed himself the liberty to think of nothing and enjoy the sunrise, though he only let it last for a moment. That’s all he could give himself. He put the helmet back on his head and sent one last look at the horizon before sinking into his own shadow.

Shen was waiting for him. If finished with the patrol, Kayn as well. 

* * *

 

Zed arrived at the top of the stone steps of the Kinkou Monastery, or rather what once was the Kinkou Monastery. Ever since he overthrew Kusho, the monastery turned into the base for the Shadow Order. Shen had been coming to the Monastery to help deal with Jhin. He could imagine how angry Shen must have been when he first stepped foot into his former home. 

They had decided to meet at the monastery every three days to report their findings. So far, their searches had all failed. There was no sign of Khada Jhin anywhere. Nothing on Zed’s end this time either.

He made his way towards the entrance of the monastery, expecting Shen to stand by one of the pillars with his usual stoic expression. And just like Zed, there was an underlying exhaustion in his eyes. Shen was just as tired as Zed was, if not more. 

Zed slowly looked up in realization Shen wasn’t waiting for him by the entrance. Odd. He was never one to be late for their rendezvous in the morning. There was a chance he had business in the spirit realm, but he would leave a sign that he would come back.

While he would have shrugged it off, a glint from a bush had caught his eyes. Furrowing his brows, Zed approached the bush and brushed it aside.

Dread immediately pooled in his stomach as he jerked his arm back with his blades pulled out on instinct. His breaths became shorter as he continued to stare at the lotus trap hidden within the bush. It was almost perfectly nestled into the leaves, just barely showing enough to be noticed by a careful eye.

But the Golden Demon would not make such a grave mistake.

This was on purpose.

A warning.

“Shen…!” Zed whispered in panic. He snuck down the hall through the shadows, searching through every room in the monastery. Each room contained a butchered corpse, torn apart and rearranged into different displays. Very few were left untouched, but those few were gravely injured and barely left alive. 

“M-Master Zed…” a student croaked, catching his attention.

Zed materialized from the shadows and rushed over. The student’s wounds were severe, half his body covered in deep cuts and gashes. Pieces of metal were embedded into his skin, possibly even puncturing his body. A victim of Jhin’s traps. He laid a hand on the student’s shoulder, trying to shake him awake. “What happened?” he growled.

The student gripped Zed’s wrist with a desperate strength. “You can’t, you can’t,” he kept muttering. “He… he got them too…”

Zed almost felt his heart lurch up to his throat. “Where are they?” he hissed. “Tell me. Now.”

“The meditation hall… they’re…” The student choked and struggled to breathe from the blood that filled his lungs from the penetrating metal. He wasn’t going to live through this. Even if he did, he would be crippled for the rest of his life. 

The least Zed could do was end the student’s misery.

* * *

 

Zed silently opened the door to the meditation hall. His eyes scanned the area for any dangers or even the Golden Demon himself. The hall was empty and quiet, the floor and bottom of its intricate carvings and pillars dimly lit by the rising sun. As he walked closer to the center of the hall, he looked up at the swinging chandelier above.

But it was no chandelier.

Zed gasped in horror as he noticed the familiar blue hair. Kayn was hanging limply in the air with two metal hooks dug into his back, his face covered in knife cuts, and metal wires wrapped tightly around his neck. The wires extended to the ceiling, silver bells tied every four feet and around his neck like a harness. His scythe was on the platform ahead, propped up against a statue of the Spirit of Ionia. The red eye of the scythe, usually open and actively looking around, was closed.

Following the wires above Kayn, there was some sort of mechanic constructions extending throughout the ceiling. But it had been placed so neatly that one would have thought it was part of the ceiling structure. Zed brought his attention back to the boy hanging above him.

Kayn was still alive. His eyes were barely open, and the bells made quiet chimes with each shallow breath he made. Zed wasn’t even sure if Kayn could recognize his surroundings anymore. 

“Kayn, are you awake? Answer me.”

A quiet wheeze sounded from Kayn’s throat, his eyelids fluttering in response. Zed’s shoulders lowered as he sighed in relief. Kayn was awake, but barely. He saw Kayn’s eyes roll to the left and followed his line of sight, to where Shen was.

Shen was kneeling in the far corner of the meditation hall, where the sunlight began to crawl towards, hunched over with his head hanging low. Golden rope immobilized his torso and legs, preventing him from breaking free. Above him was an arrangement of metal scraps and pieces, disturbingly resembling the shape of eye.

“Shen! Are you awake?”

Groaning, Shen awoke to Zed’s voice. He shook his head, trying to clear his head. But even when he was completely conscious, he didn’t make a move. “Sorry, Zed,” Shen uttered, his voice coarse. “I couldn’t stop him.”

Zed tried to rush over to Shen’s side to untie him, but a propelling glint of silver stopped him in his tracks, and he caught it before it pierced his head. An Ionian dagger, elegantly carved with designs of smoke along the blade with a green gem inlaid in the handle. 

The sounds of metal clinking on stone then caught Zed’s attention. From the shadows, an all-too-familiar figure stepped out into the light, the trademark ivory mask almost glowing under the sunlight. “Welcome to the finale!” the figure announced, his cape flying with his grand gesture.

Khada Jhin.

It took everything Zed had to stay where he was and not recklessly attack the murderer before him. His vision was flooding with memories of the gore and horror he had witnessed all these years since his youth. If he hadn’t been used to the smell of blood and corpses, he would’ve vomited by now.

Besides, Jhin was always a step ahead: he stood just out of Zed’s reach. 

Jhin chuckled at Zed’s trembling shoulders. Was he trembling out of rage? Panic? Fear? Perhaps all three. “You’ve learned to stop charging headfirst into danger, haven’t you? Indeed, quite the character development.”

“Why are you here?” he growled angrily. 

“Why? I thought this is what you wanted. To catch me. And what’s better than being caught in the Shadow Order’s temple?” The amusement was clear in his voice. He paced around in a rhythm, humming to himself. “But what good is a capture if there is no reward, yes? After all, you’ve come so far from back then. I suppose it’s only fair to let you decide your reward.”

“Bastard. You’re only toying with us.” Zed’s hand balled into a fist around the handle of the dagger, a desperate urge to drive the blade into Jhin’s neck overtaking his body. But he couldn’t. Jhin had him wrapped around his finger, and one wrong move would be the end of it all. 

Jhin raised his arms, gesturing to both Shen and Kayn, whose bodies were now lit by the rising sun. “Let’s start with the setting for this finale. I walk away, and these two bloom in a matter of seconds.” He lazily paced to the side, keeping an eye on Zed. “But you, the protagonist, can still save them from their fate.

“One, you can save your beloved student from bursting with wings to fly to the sky. Two, you can save Shen, the man you once called your brother, from becoming the final piece to complete the Eye of Twilight above.” He paused to chuckle. “You did come to a peaceful compromise in your little detective adventure, after all, right?”

A shuriken shot past Jhin, narrowly missing his mask. 

He merely clicked his tongue and shook a finger at Zed. “Ah, ah, ah. You need to listen thoroughly.” He held up a third finger. “Three, you settle the score with the Golden Demon once and for all, abandoning the angel and the all-seeing eye.” Jhin paused before he turned around and began to walk away from Zed.

“And the fourth?”

Jhin turned his head back to Zed, his visible eye squinting in amusement, before walking away again. The sunrise slowly filled the room with light, creeping up the mechanism until it reached a green gem embedded into the center. The meditation hall became lit with green fractals from the reflecting gem.

With a snap of his fingers, numerous cogs in the mechanism above went into motion like the gears of a clock. Kayn started to ascend to the ceiling with each tick. He had no reaction to his body lightly swinging from the hooks, but Zed couldn’t imagine how much pain he was in.

Looking at Shen, Zed saw wire that was being pulled above between the metal scraps. The wire led down to Shen’s neck. There was plenty of wire before Shen would be beheaded and pulled into the air, but there was not enough time to save both. Zed knew that. 

“Choose wisely.”

Zed glanced at the dagger in his hands, then to Kayn, then to Shen, and then back to the dagger. His eyes moved up to Shen, who stared back with those glowing blue eyes. The two shared a look that seemed to last for an eternity. 

“You need to save Kayn,” Shen insisted. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me.” He was now sitting upright, the rope just barely tightening his neck now. 

Kayn suddenly coughed blood when the metal hooks began to pull him in opposite directions. His breathing was getting shallower, the bells chiming in quick succession.

Jhin was still walking away with a lazy bounce to his steps. He was slowly disappearing into the shadows.

The cogs continued to tick away faster. 

Tick. 

Tock. 

There was no time.

But then it dawned on Zed. He realized it was an easy choice all this time. He made the decision a long time ago after all. He raised the dagger, its blade flashing at Shen. 

Shen closed his eyes and lulled his head back, leaving his neck and chest open. But the dagger never came. The sound of metal meeting flesh snapped his eyes open to look at Zed.

Zed had pierced the dagger into his own stomach, twisting it with a pained grunt and pulling it out. In that moment, his shadow materialized behind Shen and cut the wire free. 

“Zed!” Shen called in desperate panic, jumping to his feet.

Jhin stopped in his tracks to turn his head, seeing Zed bleeding out on the stone floor. His eye met Shen’s, whose eyes were glowing brighter in rage. He could only smile. “What will you do, Eye of Twilight? It’s all up to you now.” He once again turned to walk away without a care in the world. Not even two steps, and Shen had already gone to Zed’s side. 

And the Golden Demon disappeared into the shadows.

The cogs in the mechanism came to a stop and lowered Kayn onto the ground. Shen first cut the wire tied around Kayn’s neck and laid him on his stomach. He carefully pulled the hooks out of Kayn’s back, which were hooked onto his scapulas. Had Zed been any later, the hooks would have tore Kayn’s scapulas apart and spread his chest and arms into the air.

Kayn wheezed before he coughed a few more times from becoming able to breathe better. “M-Master… Zed…” he called before falling unconscious.

Shen wasted no time tending to Zed’s wound, removing Zed’s helmet in the process. He kicked away the dagger in Zed’s hand while applying pressure onto his abdomen. “Zed? Zed, stay with me here.” He watched Zed’s face contort in pain from the stab wound. “God, what is wrong with you? Killing me was the easiest option, and yet you—”

“No, he knew what he was doing,” Zed answered. “This was the only way.”

“What happened to the Master of Shadows I knew?” Shen retorted. “We need you to capture him. Stabbing yourself was not the answer.” When Zed didn’t respond, Shen tried to slap him awake but was stopped by Zed’s hand raising up.

“He never stated out loud what the last option was.” 

“But you shouldn’t have gone with that choice. You should’ve just killed me to save Kayn.”

Zed didn’t respond. Instead, he exhaled slowly to help with the pain. “Do you remember when we were young, we made that oath of brotherhood? I never really forgot about that.”

“Zed,” Shen said, a warning evident in his tone.

“I deserve this, don’t you think?” He tasted the blood rising to the back of his throat. Spitting blood out, he croaked out a laughter.

“Stop.”

“Ironic that I, the one who started that oath, destroyed everything with my own hands. The Kinkou Order, the monastery, our bond… your father…”

“Stop talking about things that are long gone, Zed!” Shen shouted, slamming the side of his fist onto the stone floor. “I thought the past is dead. What is the point of bringing this up now?”

Zed couldn’t help but smirk. “When was the last time I heard you lose yourself like that? It feels like an eternity ago.” He closed his eyes. His senses were beginning to numb, and the lull of sleep was tempting. He let out a long sigh before fluttering his eyes open again. He scoffed, “You were foolish for thinking you were the choice.”

“I,” Shen started, a slightly crack in his voice, “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“I thought you always wanted to see me dead? Your wish is getting granted now.”

“Don’t, Zed. You are  _ not _ going to die.” Shen’s shoulders started to shake. “I’m not going to let you.”

Zed blinked in slight surprise at the warm droplets that fell onto his hand. “The Eye of Twilight? Showing emotion? The world must be coming to an end.” He laughed despite the fluctuating pain. He gripped Shen’s wrist tightly. “Shen, promise me you’ll get that masked demon. He doesn’t deserve to see the light of day.”

“I will, but you have to stay alive for that. You’re foolish to think I can do it on my own.”

“Better than what I can do. Besides, you still have your Order. You’re not alone.” Zed pursed his lips and took a deep breath. He couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer from the blinding morning sun. “I think I’m going to sleep for a while. I don’t think I can keep awake. I’m just… so tired.”

“No. No! Zed! Stay with me!” 

But Shen’s cries were for naught. Zed’s vision was beginning to blur to black, and Shen’s voice was getting quieter and quieter by the second. For a moment, he didn’t want to die. For a moment, he felt fear for his candlelight being snuffed out by the darkness. For a moment, he feared the shadows he embraced.

That moment of fear was soon replaced by a wave of catharsis. His own words echoed in his mind:  _ I deserve this, don’t you think? _

He blinked, and he was taken back to his childhood in an instant, back when he and Shen happily spent their days in the monastery together. Shen’s tearful face turned to his younger, happier grin, dragging Zed over to the temple. It almost felt like another world where nothing bad happened, where Zed didn’t crush everything he had.

A world where Shen and Zed grew up together without a single drop of animosity towards the other. A world where there could have been more. A world where Kayn became closer to a son figure to him. A world where both Shen and Zed were happy and had nothing to lose.

_ “Shen… I…” _

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collab story with SpinyOctopus based on her tweet! Check out what she initially wrote for it!
> 
> https://twitter.com/RozmaryTC/status/1123984091030925313


End file.
